Monday, February 5, 2018

The Mountain Midwife by Laurie Alice Eakes

Book Description:  For nearly two hundred years, women in Ashley Tolliver’s family have practiced the art of midwifery in their mountain community. Now she wants to take her skills a step further, but attending medical school means abandoning those women to whom she has dedicated her life, the mountains she loves, and the awakening of her heart.

Ashley Tolliver has tended to the women of her small Appalachian community for years. As their midwife, she thinks she has seen it all. Until a young woman gives birth at Ashley’s home and is abducted just as Ashley tries to take the dangerously bleeding mother to the nearest hospital. Now Ashley is on a mission to find the woman and her newborn baby . . . before it’s too late.
Hunter McDermott is on a quest—to track down his birth mother. After receiving more media attention than he could ever want for being in the right place at the right time, he receives a mysterious phone call from a woman claiming to be his mother. Hunter seeks out the aid of the local midwife in the mountain town where the phone call originated—surely she can shed some light on his own family background.
Ashley isn’t prepared for the way Hunter’s entrance into her world affects her heart and her future. He reignites dreams of having her own family that she has long put aside in favor of earning her medical degree and being able to do even more for her community. But is it commitment to her calling or fear of the unknown that keeps her feet firmly planted in the Appalachian soil? Or is it something more—fear of her growing feelings for Hunter—that makes her hesitant to explore the world beyond the mountains?

My Thoughts:  Another new author to me, Laurie Alice Eakes, writes a paced novel about babies!  Well, midwifery.
Not one who has ever been interested in midwifery or birthing, I did find this novel, The Mountain Midwife, interesting.
Ms.Eakes writes with a dramatic flair that makes the reader feel the pain and trials of a young woman who helps others and of a young man who just wants to find his birth mother.
When I first saw the book and its title I thought that this would be an 18th century or early 19th century read but no, this is a modern day story.  Cell phones, jeans, and mountains.
Ashely finds that she needs to deal with feelings of the "unknown" and Hunter, well, Hunter brings a lot to Ashley's small world.
Other "secondary" characters in the story make the story well rounded  . . . at times funny, other times suspenseful, and sometimes just plain mean.
This is quite a story!  
One that I think all readers will love whether you like midwives or not.  
And of course, romance.

*This book was provided for review by The Thomas Nelson Street Team*

  • Paperback: 352 pages
  • Publisher: Zondervan (December 15, 2015)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 031033344X
  • ISBN-13: 978-0310333449

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